Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

The biennale fever has slowly creeped on Southeast Asia. Critical issues surrounding the biennale brand had its grip on the first Singapore Biennale (2006). Singapore is known to be an economically developed country. Hosting and, more importantly, sustaining a biennale is financially feasible. However, such a small island lacked cultural spaces. Strategies used to solve this issue is unpacked by using theories of Henri Lefebvre and Doreen Massey, that is, the appropriation of space as semantic systems of late capitalist use. This demonstrates how the Singapore Biennale chose to create exhibition spaces that circumvent their limited geography. At times, issues such as gentrification arise when the Singapore Biennale overlaid historic and cultural sites as exhibition sites. To critique this, the paper will look at two artworks: the Magic Carpet (2006) by Xu Bing and the Merlion Hotel (2011) By Tatzu Nishi. Both critiques of the artworks will focus on how the exhibition site affected viewership. How the biennale negotiated between the artwork, the site, and the audience will be made evident in this paper. With more Southeast Asian countries riding the biennale brand, the paper finds it important to study how the biennales function in the region’s context. It focuses on Singapore Biennale’s spatial form through its exhibitions to grasp its function and relevance. The exposition on critical issues of space under this context hopes to unpack negotiations between the site, the audience, and the biennale.